JOB TO BE DONE – A missing perspective in a marketing plan

What “job” a tea seller, an OTC headache pill seller, a pharmacist, a doctor, or a diagnostic company trying to achieve for a patient suffering from a headache? Let’s first look at the journey cycle of any headache sufferer. A headache sufferer shifts from a stimulant to a speacialist-driven diagnosis over time, triggered by unsatisfying results from each intervention. Many cups of tea shift to OTC drugs to a visit to a doctor over this time.

All this time, what is a head sufferer trying to do? Get his headache relieved? Or something else? Why is he sipping a cup of tea/coffee, applying a balm, or taking a pill?

Often, marketers have a product view of the need – shouting about how their product/service will relieve a sufferer’s headache. But customers don’t want or need a cup of tea, a balm, or a headache pill. They are just trying to get back to their normal productive selves. That is their Job-To-Be-Done. Marketers often overlook this perspective. A Tea Seller, the brand manager of an OTC drug, a diagnostic company’s product manager, a doctor, or a headache specialist is helping this sufferer get back to his productive self. Yet much promotional money is spent on why the sufferer should choose a particular product or service. It is anchored in their pursuit of a “source of growth.” They all end up competing with one another… which I feel comes into the way of a truly patient / sufferer-centric approach to advertising. ?

It does not have to be the case. These competing products can collaborate uniquely if they adopt the Job-To-Be-Done approach. Of course, marketers would have to overcome the traditional model of thinking that they are competing for the same share of the wallet.?

#JTBD #Innovation #Consumerinsights #Headache